Postgame: Chicago

Andy Gruenebaum has a message for fans of the Crew looking for some magic words to help turn the season around.

Keep looking.

“We’re all disappointed,” the goalkeeper said after tonight’s 2-1 home loss to Chicago. “There’s been a lot of talk throughout this stretch we’ve had as far as coming off a loss, a long speech or a short speech. I just think that everyone knows we just need to try to put this behind us as quick as we can. What else can you do? I know everybody wants to hear some magical statement, but that’s the most simple explanation I can give you.

“We’re not out of it and we just have to keep fighting and hopefully our fans still believe us because I know internally we all have that belief.”

It is getting harder to not forecast much other than continued frustration for this year’s version of the Crew. This loss was significant in a number of ways:

-first loss when leading at halftime (3-1-0)-first Chicago win when trailing at halftime (0-2-1)-a win would have put the Crew tied for third in points-the Crew is now 2-3-3 at home

But perhaps most importantly, the Crew now hits the road for a two-game stretch at Kansas City and Los Angeles before returning home to face Portland. That’s three games in eight days against teams with more points than the Crew.

This was a must-win after last weekend’s 2-0 win against Montreal, and the Crew said as such during the week.

“The game was everything,” head coach Robert Warzycha said. “We talked before the game that this game means a lot. Chicago is just behind us. We said, ‘Don’t think about Chicago being so close to us, think about what we can gain.’ We were talking about teams in front of us and if we had gotten three points we would be in good position.”

The Fire is now two points behind the Crew despite having played one fewer game after opening the season 0-2-2 while being outscored 9-2. Chicago is 3-0-2 in its last five; the Crew is 1-2-2.

“Obviously it’s disappointing,” Gruenebaum said. “We know it was a crucial game, but from here on out every game is going to have a playoff vibe to it because each point is crucial for us and we have ot make sure that we get as many points. It’s simple. It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure it out. Bottom line is we’ve got to win and we know that. Tonight we didn’t get the job done and we let it slip through our hands.”

The goalsChicago scored in the 52nd and 54th minutes to erase the Crew’s 1-0 halftime lead. Both goals came on crosses that found unmarked Fire attackers far-post.

“I think it’s not that they were necessarily playing better than us, it’s just individual plays,” said right back Chad Barson, who was unable to stop either of Joel Lindpere’s crosses that led to goals. “You can’t fall asleep. It’s not one person, it’s a multitude of individual mistakes that add up. They’re a good enough team that they can punish you with mistakes adding up like that.”

In both cases, it was center back Josh Williams who found himself only able to watch as the ball went into the net. It was Williams’ second start at center back since July 8, 2012, while Barson was making the fourth straight start of his rookie season.

Gruenebaum said the goals were not due to a lack of familiarity between players still settling into positions.

“These guys are professionals and very good professionals at that,” he said. “I think we’ll be fine. Offensively for some reason we’re just getting unlucky. I think we need to follow a few more shots, a couple rebounds maybe if we’re a little more aggressive we could’ve followed up and maybe we get one. A couple bad bounces. We just have to make our own luck.”

SubsWarzycha did not make any substitutions until the 80th minute when forward Aaron Schoenfeld replaced defensive midfielder Matias Sanchez. He then replaced right back Chad Barson with midfielder/forward Justin Meram in the 88th.

Asked why he waited so long to make changes, Warzycha said, “We had momentum at that time. We created a number of chances, so I didn’t want to change that. You have to take one player off the field, and you don’t want to take a forward because you want to score a goal. You don’t want to take out (Jairo) Arrieta or (Dominic) Oduro because Arrieta can score at any time and he was very busy. Dominic has scored seven goals so I didn’t want to take him off. The team was creating chances and I didn’t want to change.”

He was forced to make one change shortly before kickoff when midfielder Ben Speas was scratched due to illness. Arrieta, back from national-team duty, replaced Speas on the wing while Oduro remained up top. Although the two would change throughout the game, it marked the first time Arrieta has started at a position other than forward in his Crew career.

Arrieta left before I could speak with him, but Federico Higuain said he did not feel the changes in the lineup held the team back.

Meanwhile, Warzycha said after the Montreal game that he was not looking to make lineup changes because of the way that group played. Are changes in the offing for this weekend at Sporting Kansas City?

“I think the way they played, I can’t be disappointed because I think we created a number of chances and we played quick and there was a good understanding,” he said. “We just have to tighten things in the back. Simple. I’m not looking for too many changes because I don’t have the players. I don’t have a player to replace Chad Marshall or Josh Williams.”

The chantsFor the second straight game, fans in the Nordecke threw pink slips into the air when Warzycha’s name was announced just before the opening kickoff. The frustrations from the fans resurfaced in the final minutes in the form of a pair of chants.

First, the Nordecke chanted “Sack Warzycha!” along with a drum beat. When that wore down, they began chanting en masse “Guillermo! Guillermo!” while pointing to the bench, referring to club legend Guillermo Barros Schelotto, who is coaching in his native Argentina and has expressed his interest in returning to MLS in a coaching role.

After the game, the hashtag “#sackwarzycha” was trending in Columbus and rookie defender addressed the situation on his Twitter page.

“I understand the frustration with the results but really Disappointed with some of the chants heard tonight…win as a team and lose as a team,” he wrote at 10:44 p.m.

At 11:43 p.m., Meram wrote on Twitter, “No clue what happened tonight.”